Iraqi
Journalist Who Threw Shoes at Bush Was Tortured in Jail, His Brother Says
22 Dec 2008 The television reporter who threw his shoes at President [sic]
Bush was burned by a cigarette in the hours after his arrest on Dec. 14
and was beaten so badly by Iraqi security personnel that one of his teeth
was knocked out, the reporterís brother said Sunday after a visit to the
jail. The reporter, Muntader al-Zaidi has been jailed since hurling his
shoes at Mr. Bush during a news conference here last week.

Stampede
for 'Bush shoe' creates 100 new jobs 22
Dec 2008 Their deployment as a makeshift missile robbed President [sic]
George Bush of his dignity and landed their owner in jail. But the world's
most notorious pair of shoes have yielded an unexpected bonanza for a
Turkish shoemaker. Ramazan Baydan, owner of the Istanbul-based Baydan
Shoe Company, has been swamped with orders from across the world, after
insisting that his company produced the black leather shoes which the
Iraqi journalist Muntazar al-Zaidi threw at Bush during a press conference
in Baghdad last Sunday. Baydan has recruited an extra 100 staff to meet
orders for 300,000 pairs of Model 271 - more than four times the shoe's
normal annual sale - following an outpouring of support for Zaidi's act,
which was intended as a protest, but led to his arrest by Iraqi security
forces.

Bush
shoe-thrower in hospital after beating: brother
16 Dec 2008 The Iraqi journalist who hurled shoes at US President [sic]
George W. Bush is in hospital after being beaten up by security guards,
his brother charged on Tuesday, as judicial authorities launched a probe
into the incident. "He has been taken to Ibn Sina hospital because he
has a broken arm and ribs and is also suffering injuries to his eye and
leg," Durgham al-Zaidi said of his brother Muntazer.

Shoe
thrower 'beaten in custody' 16 Dec 2008
The brother of the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President
[sic] George W Bush has said that the reporter has been beaten in custody.
Muntadar al-Zaidi has allegedly suffered a broken arm, broken ribs and
internal bleeding, his older brother, Dargham, told the BBC. Mr Zaidi
threw his shoes at Mr Bush at a news conference, calling him "a dog".

Official:
Shoe-thrower in Iraqi military custody 16 Dec 2008 The journalist
who threw his shoes at U.S. President [sic] George W. Bush was handed
over to the Iraqi military, an Iraqi official said, as hundreds
thousands took to the streets Tuesday for a second day demanding his release.
Muntadhar al-Zeidi was turned over by the prime minister's security guards
to face further investigation by the military command in charge of enforcing
security in Baghdad, the official told The Associated Press.

200
lawyers offer to defend Bush shoe attacker --Detained journalist's
employer calls for his 'immediate release' 16 Dec 2008 Saddam Husseinís
former lawyer said on Monday he was forming a team to defend the Iraqi
journalist who hurled his shoes at US President [sic] George W Bush during
his farewell visit to Baghdad. "So far around 200 Iraqi and other
lawyers, including Americans, have expressed willingness to defend the
journalist for free," the Amman-based Khalil al-Dulaimi told AFP.
"I took the decision on Sunday night to defend the man after the
incident. I am currently contacting Arab bar associations to form a defence
committee."

'He
[George Bush] deserves to be hit with 100, not just one or two shoes.
Who wants him to come here?' --A Baghdad resident [speaking for the whole
world] Iraq
rally for Bush shoe attacker 15 Dec 2008
Thousands of Iraqis have demanded the release of a local TV reporter who
threw his shoes at US President [sic] George W Bush at a Baghdad news
conference. Crowds gathered in Baghdad's Sadr City district, calling for
"hero" Muntadar al-Zaidi to be freed from custody. The Cairo-based al-Baghdadiya
TV channel said Mr Zaidi should be freed because he had been exercising
freedom of expression - something which the Americans had promised to
Iraqis on the ousting of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. "Any
measures against Muntadar will be considered the acts of a dictatorial
regime," the firm said in a statement. He said he was afraid
for Mr Zaidi's safety, adding that the reporter had been arrested by US
officials twice before. "We fear that our correspondents in Iraq will
be arrested. We have 200 correspondents there," he added.

Iraq
TV demands release of Bush shoe attacker
15 Dec 2008 An Iraqi television station on Monday demanded the immediate
release of one of its journalists who caused a furore when he hurled shoes
at visiting US President [sic] George W. Bush. Muntazer al-Zaidi jumped
up as Bush was holding a press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki on Sunday, shouted "It is the farewell kiss, you dog"
and threw two shoes at the US leader. Bush ducked and the first shoe hit
the American and Iraqi flags behind the two leaders, while the second
was off target.

Many
hail journalist who threw shoes at Bush
15 Dec 2008 Muntadhar al-Zeidi is a certified
hero and all he had to do was throw his shoes. On Sunday, the
Arab journalist launched both his shoes at U.S. President George Bush
during a press conference in Baghdad. The first shoe nearly pinged Bush
in the head but he managed to duck just in time. Iraqi Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki tried to block the second shoe as it flew directly over
Bush's head. "This is a farewell kiss, you dog," al-Zeidi yelled in Arabic
as he tossed his shoes at Bush. "This is from the widows, the orphans
and those who were killed in Iraq."

Iraqi
reporter throws shoes at Bush, calls him dog 15 Dec 2008 An Iraqi
reporter threw
his shoes at visiting U.S. President [sic] George W. Bush and called
him a "dog" in Arabic during a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister
Nuri al-Maliki in Baghdad on Sunday. Muntadhar al-Zaidi, reporter of Baghdadiya
television jumped and threw his two shoes one by one at the president,
who ducked and thus narrowly missed being struck, raising chaos in the
hall in Baghdad's heavily fortified green Zone. "This is a farewell kiss,
dog," said Zaidi. Several security members wrestled the man to the floor
and then dragged him out of the hall as he was screaming.

Iraqi
who threw shoes covered U.S. bombing of Shiite area
14 Dec 2008 George W. Bush made his last visit to Iraq as president [sic]
on Sunday. But instead of highlighting progress from the "surge," it became
a reminder that many Iraqis see him not as a liberator who freed them
from Saddam Hussein but as an occupier who pushed their country into chaos.
As Bush finished remarks... an Iraqi television journalist leapt from
his seat, pulled off his shoes and threw them at the pResident. Striking
someone with a shoe is a grave insult in Islam. "This is a goodbye kiss,
you dog," the journalist, Muntathar al Zaidi, 29, shouted.

Satire:Iraq
Did Have Weapon of Mass Destruction As Shoe Barely Misses President Bush
By R J Shulman 15 Dec 2008 It took his farewell tour of Iraq to find the
weapons of mass destruction he always suspected were there, but today,
President [sic] Bush personally discovered the dangerous missiles in
Iraq. "They were size 10 and they were coming straight at me," said
President Bush, speaking of the two shoes thrown at him by Iraqi television
journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi. Zaidi tossed his shoes, saying they were
a good-bye kiss from the Iraqi people. "They say that Zaire guy called
me a dog," said Bush who ducked just in time, "but everyone else must
have dyslexia, because I heard him call me a god." (Satire)